Tobacco manipulating machinery



Dec. 13, 1966 F. A. M. LABBE TOBACCO MANIPULATING MACHINERY 5Sheets-$heet 1 Original Filed Jan. 20, 1959 wish-J2. ATTORNEY5 Dec. 13,1966 LABBE 3,291,137

TOBACCO MANIPULATING MACHINERY Original Filed Jan. 20, 1959 5Sheets-Sheet 2 /z/4%K, M

Dec. 13, 1966 F. A. M. LABBE 3,291,137

TOBACCO MANIPULATING MACHINERY Original Filed Jan. 20, 1959 5Sheets-Sheet 5 BY J i/ o'an 07e, am/: vi/$2 501 ATTORNEY:

United States Patent 3,291,137 TUBAQQG MANIPULATING MAEI-IINERY FrancisAuguste Maurice Labbe, Paris, France, assignor to The Molins@rganisatiou Limited, a British com- Continuation of application Ser.No. 89,554, Feb. 15, 1961, which is a division of application Ser. No.787,954, Jan. 20, 1959, now Patent No. 3,088,468, dated May '7, 1963.This application Apr. 26, 1965, Ser. No. 456,020

Claims priority, application Great Britain, .Ian. 21, 1958,

2,019/58 2 Claims. (Cl. 131-84) This application is a continuation of mycopending application, Serial No. 89,554, filed February 15, 1961,

and now abandoned, which was filed as a division of my prior copendingapplication, Serial No. 787,954, filed January 20, 1959, and now PatentNo. 3,088,468, issued May 7, 1963.

This invention relates to improvements in continuous rodcigarette-making machinery in which a continuous tobacco filler isformed and is more particularly concerned with improvements in apparatusfor feeding cut tobacco to form a continuous tobacco filler.

The continuous tobacco filler formed in continuous rod cigarette-makingmachinery may be produced by directing an air stream carrying outtobacco towards an air-pervious conveyor band continuously moving alonga path generally perpendicular to the direction of flow of the airstream. The cut tobacco particles are entrapped by conveyor and build upto form a filler thereon. A detailed description of a continuous rodcigarette-making machine of this type may be found in theabove-mentioned U.S. Patent No. 3,088,468.

The cut tobacco particles invariably include quite small particlescalled tobacco dust which are not entrapped on the porous conveyor bandbut are carried through it by the air stream and are discarded. Tobaccodust is itself a smokable product and therefore the discarding of thedust involves an appreciable economic loss to the cigarettemanufacturer.

It is an object of the present invention to provide means for reducingor eliminating the loss of tobacco dust from the filler as produced onthe continuously moving band.

Another object of the present invention is to provide means for readilyincorporating the tobacco dust into the filler in such a manner as toprevent its segregation in the course of forming the completed cigaretterod.

These and other objects of the present invention will become apparent inthe following description and drawings which form a part of thespecification. Like characters of reference have been applied tocorresponding parts throughout the several views which make up thedrawings, in which:

FIG. 1 shows, in side elevation and with parts broken away, means forforming a continuous tobacco filler in a continuous rod cigarette-makingmachine;

FIGURE 2 is a section on the line IIII, FIGURE 1; and

FIGURE 3 shows diagrammatically, and with parts broken away, an end viewas seen from the right-hand side of FIGURE 1 of the apparatus shown inFIGURE 1, together with a diagrammatic representation of air supplymeans; and

FIGURE 4 shows, with certain parts broken away, a

3,29Ll3? Patented Dec. 13, 1966 it has passed through the tair-perviousconveyor band and returning the extracted dust to the filler as it isbeing conveyed on the band on which it is formed or built up. Thepreviously formed tobacco filler on the conveyor band has been found toact as a filter, the dust particles adhering to the tobacco shreds asthe air passes through the filler, whereby the dust is uniformlydistributed throughout the filler and is unlikely to be dislodged duringsubsequent processing to form the cigarette rod.

Referring to FIGURE 1, a perforated endless metal conveyor band 1 passesover pulleys 2 and 3 and over a shoe 4 which is adjustably mounted totake up slack in the band. The pulley 2 is driven in the directionindicated by the arrow.

The lower course of band 1 extends directly beneath a suction chamber 5,the edges of the band, as shown in FIGURE 2, engaging shoulders formedon opposed members 6 which form a conduit communicating with the suctionchamber. Extending downwardly from the band 1 are opposed walls 7, theopposed surfaces of which have parts 7a which are arranged to convergefor a short distance in a direction away from the band. These convergingsurfaces 7a form with the band a channel 60 along which a stream oftobacco is conveyed by the band 1.

The portions of the opposed walls 7 to the right, as viewed in FIGURE 1,with extensions thereof extend downwardly to form side walls of a longnarrow passage 8 which is provided with end walls 9 and 10. At its lowerextremity, as shown diagrammatically in FIGURE 3, the passage 8 is opento allow a current of air carrying tobacco particles to enter and flowupwardly through it.

The conveyor band 1, suction chamber 5, and channel 61} extend beyondthe passage 8 in the direction of movement of band 1 and about midwaybetween the end wall 9 and the pulley 2 there is located a trimmingdevice comprising a pair of discs 11 arranged side by side a shortdistance beneath the band 1. The discs 11, only one of which is visiblein FIGURE 1, are arranged to be rotated so that their opposed edgescooperate to trim the tobacco filler carried past them by the band 1 byremoving surplus tobacco. Preferably the discs are arranged for bodilymovement up and down in response to measurements effected on the tobaccofiller or on the wrapped cigarette rod, or on both, by measuringdevices, not shown, in the manner disclosed in Us. Patent No. 3,089,497,issued May 14, 1963, to Molins et a1. Down stream and beyond thetrimming device the band 1 and suction chamber 5 extend over acigarette-paper web 12 carried by a tape 13, the arrangement being suchthat the trimmed tobacco filler is led onto the paper web while stillsuctionally held by the band 1, so that the filler is continuouslycontrolled and has little or no opportunity of loosing lateralcompression imparted to it by suction.

As seen in FIGURE 1 a pivoted flap 14 is mounted just to the left of thedown stream end of passage 8 in order to close the gap between thechannel 60 along which the tobacco filler is conveyed out of thepassage, and the top edge of the end wall 9. The flap 14 is urgedupwardly into channel 60 by the pressure of air flowing from atmospheretowards the band 1. Its purpose is to prevent atmospheric air fromflowing over the wall 9 into the passage 8 which might cause turbulencein the region of the tobacco filler and consequent disturbance of thecut tobacco in the filler.

One of the side Walls of the passage 8 is apertured by the provision ofa grill 15, FIGURES 1, 2 and 4, formed of expanded rnetal havingnumerous small apertures constituting louvres. These aperturescommunicate with a duct 16, FIGURE 3, from which air is drawn by suctionmeans to be referred to later.

FIGURE 4 shows a modification wherein the apertures communicate with amanifold 16'. The purpose of this arrangement is to draw off some of theair from the passage 8 and thus provide a greater flow of air throughthe passage than would be practical if the whole of the air were drawnthrough the conveyor band 1. The presence of this grill near the top ofthe passage may be in part responsible for the tendency for air to flowinto the passage over the end wall 9, as explained above, if notprevented from doing so by the flap 14.

The means for causing air to flow through the passage 8, and for feedingtobacco particles into the passage, will now be briefly described withreference to FIGURE 3. A carded conveyor drum 21 receives tobacco inbulk on the upper part of its surface and carries it past a cardedrefuser roller 22, and the tobacco is picked from the drum 21 by thepicker roller 23 and impelled across a guide plate 24. Beyond the plateis an air duct 25 having an entrance comprising a rotating foraminouscylinder 26, and the passage 8 is located alongside the duct.

The suction chamber 5 communicates by way of a conduit 27 with a suctionfan 28 by which air is drawn through the passage 8 and the band 1. Theduct 25 is connected by a conduit 29 with a further suction fan 30. Theduct 16 connects the passage 8 to the conduit 29 so that air is drawnfrom the passage through the louvred grill 15. Within the conduit 29 isa dust separating device 31 by which dust is extracted and passed withsome air through a conduit 32 into the conduit 27. The outlet of the fancommunicates with a conduit 33 which conducts air to an air manifold 34,through which the air is discharged to a diffuser 35 comprising a curvedplate 36, a sheet 37 of expanded metal, and a chamber 38 to receiveshort particles of tobacco which may be contained in the air. Air flowsover the right-hand edge of the plate 36 into the chamber 38, and flowsout of the chamber through a central aperture 36a in the plate 36. Theair then flows upwardly through the expanded metal sheet 37 to be drawninto the passage 8 and the duct 25. Accordingly the air drawn into thepassage 8 and duct 25 consists of air from the diffuser 35 mixed withatmospheric air.

The air discharged by the fan 28 passes through a conduit 39 to amulti-unit cyclone 40 by which, after removal of dust, the air isdischarged to atmosphere through the pipes 40a.

A further dust-separating device 41 is provided in the conduit 39 and isconnected by a pipe 42 to the open side of channel 60 at a position downstream from passage 8 to convey extracted dust to the filler which isbeing continuously conveyed on the air-pervious band 1 through thechannel 60. The amount of dust conveyed from the dust-separating device41 to the tobacco filler may be controlled by a valve 43 in the conduit42.

The air drawn into the passage 8 and duct 25 passes through an aperturedplate 44. The air flowing through the left-hand end of plate 44, asviewed in FIGURE 3, can be controlled to a certain extent by themovement of a pivoted plate 53 which can be used to blank olT a portionof the plate 44. The plate 53 is carried by a member 52 pivotallymounted at 52a. The air drawn through the foraminous cylinder 26 intothe duct 25 deflects the tobacco impelled over the plate 24 so that thetobacco particles move in a curved path into the entrance to the passage8 in which they are accelerated by reason of the high-velocity aircurrent flowing upwardly through the passage. Due to the rotation of thecylinder 26 tobacco which comes into contact with its surface is thrownoff or removed by scrapers which are not shown.

Vanes 45 direct the air entering the passage 8 in a direction at aslight angle with respect to the length of the band 1. To the left ofthe vanes 45, as viewed in FIGURE 3, is a plate 51 which forms with theplate 44 a duct leading to a chamber 54 into which portions of stalk orstem are projected by the picker 23. is provided at each end of theplate 51.

In operation of the apparatus, tobacco particles are impelled up thepassage 8 by the high-velocity air current and build up on thecontinuously moving band 1 to form a filler thereon. The air drawnthrough the rotating perforated cylinder 26 draws tobacco dust from thetobacco entering the lower end of the passage 8. This tobacco dust isdrawn through the cylinder 26 and up the duct 25 and through the duct29. The action of the air drawn through the conveyor band 1 into thesuction chamber 5 draws with it some of the dust not entrapped on theconveyor band and this dust is drawn through duct 27 and fan 28.

Dust is extracted from the air passing through duct 29 by thedust-separating device 31, and this dust is added to the air-dustmixture in duct 27 by means of conduit 32. The How in conduit 32 may becontrolled by valve 62. After passing through the fan 28 the dustsuspended in the air from ducts 27 and 29 and the con-, duit 32 isextracted by the dust-separating device 41 and passes with air alongpipe 42 to channel 60 at a point downstream from passage 8 where thedust from pipe 42 is drawn by the atmospheric air passing into chamber 5into the tobacco filler. The amount of dust extracted by dust-separatingdevice 41 and fed to the filler may be controlled by operation of valve43 which controls the air flow through pipe 42 and thus the amount ofdust conveyed. The control of the percentage of dust in the tobaccofiller is necessary to assure that the continuous cigarette rod willhave a desired proportion of tobacco filler to dust. If necessary valve43 may be completely closed and all of the dust in duct 39 will thenpass to the cyclones 40.

It has been found that though much of the tobacco dust in a mixture oftobacco filler and dust when fed onto the pervious conveyor band 1 by anair stream will pass through the conveyor band, when dust is fed ontothe conveyor band having tobacco filler thereon little if any dust willpass through the conveyor band. The tobacco filler acts as a filter withthe dust particles adhering to the larger tobacco shreds as the airpasses through the filler. The tobacco dust is thus distributedthroughout the filler giving reasonably good uniformity to the filler inthe formed cigarette rod.

The apparatus herein above described may be varied in construction. Thedevice disclosed above is selected to illustrate the invention and issubstantially one embodiment thereof. The invention is not to berestricted to the precise details of the structure as disclosed.

What is claimed as the invention is:

1. In a continuous rod cigarette-making machine having apparatus forforming a tobacco filler, comprising an elongated air-pervious conveyoron which the filler is progressively built up and which is arranged tomove lengthwise, passage means leading to the conveyor and extendingalong a substantial length of said conveyor, the conveyor conveying abuilt-up filler away from said passage, means defining an inlet to saidpassage, a first pump, a first conduit communicating with the first pumpand the conveyor and through which the first pump draws air through theconveyor and the passage, means to feed tobacco particles into the inletto said passage, suction means outside said passage and adjacent saidinlet, a second pump, a second conduit communicating with the secondpump and the suction means and through which the second pump draws airthrough said suction means across the path of the tobacco entering saidpassage, the improvement comprising first dust-extracting means incommunication with the first pump to extract tobacco dust from air whichhas passed through the passage and the conveyor, second dust-extractingmeans in communication with the second pump to extract tobacco dust fromair after it has been drawn into the suction means and A web 50 acrossthe path of the tobacco entering the passage, a third conduit to conveydust-laden air from the second dust-extracting means to the firstdust-extracting means, a pipe to receive dust-laden air from the firstdust-extracting means and to convey the dust-laden air to the conveyoroutside of the passage at a position where the conveyor conveys thebuilt-up filler away from the passage, whereby the extracted tobaccodust is conveyed into and incorporated in the built-up filler.

2. In a continuous rod cigarette-making machine having apparatus forforming an elongated tobacco filler, comprising an air-pervious conveyoron which the filler is progressively built up and which is arranged tomove in a linear direction, means providing a filler supply passagecommunicating with said conveyor and extending along a substantiallength of said conveyor to build up a filler on said conveyor, saidconveyor conveying the built-up filler away from said passage, channelmeans extending along a further length of said conveyor beyond saidsupply passage, means defining an inlet to said supply passage, a firstpump to draw air through said airpervious conveyor and said supplypassage, means to feed tobacco particles in a predetermined path towardand into said inlet, suction means outside said supply passage andadjacent said inlet, a second pump to draw air through said suctionmeans across said path of the tobacco entering said supply passage, theimprovement comprising first dust-extracting means to extract tobaccodust from air passing through said suction means, second dust-extractingmeans to extract tobacco dust from air which has passed through saidsupply passage and said conveyor, a firs-t conduit to convey theextracted dust from said first dust-extracting meansto said seconddust-extracting means, and a second conduit to receive the extractedtobacco dust from said second dust-extracting means, said second conduitterminating in said channel beyond said supply passage, whereby theextracted tobacco dust is conveyed into and incorporated in the built-upfiller.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,808,795 6/ 1931Stelzer. 2,467,248 4/1949 Arelt 13 1-109 2,617,426 11/ 1952 Patterson13184 2,932,300 4/1960 Dearsley 131--1 10 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,179,99212/195 8 France.

764,551 12/ 1956 Great Britain.

SAMUEL KOREN, Primary Examiner.

JOSEPH S. REICH, Examiner.

1. IN A CONTINUOUS ROD CIGARETTE-MAKING MACHINE HAVING APPARATUS FORFORMING A TOBACCO FILLER, COMPRISING AN ELONGATED AIR-PERVIOUS CONVEYORON WHICH THE FILLER IS PROGRESSIVELY BUILD UP AND WHICH IS ARRANGED TOMOVE LENGTHWISE, PASSAGE MEANS LEADING TO THE CONVEYOR AND EXTENDINGALONG A SUBSTANTIAL LENGTH OF SAID CONVEYOR, THE CONVEYOR CONVEYING ABUILT-UP FILLER AWAY FROM SAID PASSAGE, MEANS DEFINING AN INLET TO SAIDPASSAGE, A FIRST PUMP, A FIRST CONDUIT COMMUNICATING WITH THE FIRST PUMPAND THE CONVEYOR AND THROUGH WHICH THE FIRST PUMP DRAWS AIR THROUGH THECONVEYOR AND THE PASSAGE, MEANS TO FEED TOBACCO PARTICLES INTO THE INLETTO SAID PASSAGE, SUCTION MEANS OUTSIDE SAID PASSAGE AND ADJACENT SAIDINLET, A SECOND PUMP, A SECOND CONDUIT COMMUNICATING WITH THE SECONDPUMP AND THE SUCTION MEANS AND THROUGH WHICH THE SECOND PUMP DRAWS AIRTHROUGH SAID SUCTION MEANS ACROSS THE PATH OF THE TOBACCO ENTERING SAIDPASSAGE, THE IMPROVEMENT COMPRISING FIRST DUST-EXTRACTING MEANS INCOMMUNICATION WITH THE FIRST PUMP TO EXTRACT TOBACCO DUST FROM AIR WHICHHAS PASSED THROUGH THE PASSAGE AND THE CONVEYOR, SECOND DUST-EXTRACTINGMEANS IN COMMUNICATION WITH THE SECOND PUMP TO EXTRACT TOBACCO DUST FROMAIR AFTER IT HAS BEEN DRAWN INTO THE SUCTION MEANS AND ACROSS THE PATHOF THE TOBACCO ENTERING THE PASSAGE, A THIRD CONDUIT TO CONVEYDUST-LADEN AIR FROM THE SECOND DUST-EXTRACTING MEANS TO THE FIRSTDUST-EXTRACTING MEANS, A PIPE TO RECEIVE DUST-LADEN AIR FROM THE FIRSTDUST-EXTRACTING MEANS AND TO CONVEY THE DUST-LADEN AIR TO THE CONVEYOROUTSIDE OF THE PASSAGE AT A POSITION WHERE THE CONVEYOR CONVEYS THEBUILT-UP FILTER AWAY FROM THE PASSAGE, WHEREBY THE EXTRACTED TOBACCODUST IS CONVEYED INTO AND INCORPORATED IN THE BUILT-UP FILLER.